Contradicting media-fed rumors that Israel’s policies endanger the lives of American soldiers, Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, said that Israel is a strategic ally and has helped saved the lives of American citizens and soldiers.

In a recent column in the Washington Examiner, Gold pointed out that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu highlighted the Israeli-American alliance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention last month. Prime Netanyahu told his audience, “Israel shares with America everything” it knows about their common enemies, especially intelligence.

Gold wrote that the Obama administration “has a special responsibility to contain its tensions with Israel” in order that the diplomatic disagreement not ruin the strategic relationship.

He refuted allegations that Israel’s construction of homes for Jews in all of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, as well as its general approach to demands of the Palestinian Authority, endanger American soldiers fighting terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The theory was incorrectly reported as being expressed by U.S. General Petraeus, head of the American Central Command, who later denied having made any such comments.

Gold (pictured) pointed out that on the contrary, Israel actually has saved American lives. He noted that as recently as three years ago, “the commander of EUCOM, Gen. Bantz Craddock, told the House Armed Services Committee that ‘in the Middle East, Israel is the U.S.’s closest ally that consistently and directly supports our interests.’”

The former ambassador also said that American forces in Iraq used Israeli technology to protect U.S. soldiers “from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were responsible for most U.S. casualties in the Iraq War.”

Previous examples of Israeli help include supplying the American army with Soviet weapons system. Gold added, “Gen. George Keegan, the former head of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, was quoted …in 1986 as saying that the intelligence the United States received from Israel could not have been obtained if the U.S. had ‘five CIAs.'"

Critics of Israel have noted that the American government gives Israeli billions of dollars in military aid, but they invariably neglect to mention that the American military-industrial complex needs Israel almost equally. The assistance to Israel is conditioned on Israel's buying approximately three-quarters of the materials and technology in the United States.